Repair Organization to Keep e with Military Mechanization
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LAST October the Army re-organized its engineering personnel. From the R.A.O.C., the R.A.S.C. and the RE., suitably qualified men are drawn and gathered into an entirely new corps, the Royal Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, R.E.M.E. for short and commonly pronounced " Reemee." Apart, perhaps, from such things as tents and saddlery, everything is grist for the R.E.M.E. mill. Tanks, wheeled vehicles, small arms, big guns, radio-location equipment, wireless sets, telecommunication apparatus, searchlights, predictors, watches and other instruments, all are the responsibility of R.E.M.E.
The respective units operating this equipment are trained, and indeed permitted, to perform only the barest minimum of maintenance. With transport, for instance, it is specifically limited to greasing, oiling and small adjustments. Everything else must be done by R.E.M.E. The new corps, in fact, cannot sit snugly back at base. It must be everywhere that the Army goes.
Organization, therefore, takes the form of four echelons, as they are called. The first consists of light-aid detachments Which go into action in trucks and tractors with tank, artillery and infantry, units. These repair on the spot what can be managed in that way; what cannot, they condemn so that it can -be replaced.
Just behind the Line is the second echelon with its mobile workshops, heavy lorries equipped with machinery and breakdown outfits. These repair what they can manage while still keeping pace with the division or brigade to which they are attached. A little farther back, also mobile, but much more extensively equipped, is the third echelon.
Behind that again and forming the pivot on which the whole system moves, there' is' the fourth echelon, the static base workshop, equipped to do anything and everything that can be neededin the repair and overhaul of machinery. Just what that means became clearer to us after a visit to one of these establishments in the Midlands.
This place is more complete than many a vehicle factory, because its activities cover not only the parts which that factory makes, but also the units which are supplied to it ready made, such as tyres, electrical accessories, fuel-injection equipment and wireless sets, Two or three miles away, for instance, there is a branch works which is something of a model in the way of a wireless repair depot. A long row of benches, with five craftsmen apiece, each provided with all the necessary tools and instruments, . occupies the main part of the building, whilst along one side are the test rooms, doubly screened against interference.
Another branch establishment is concerned chiefly with woodwork, partly for the repair of vehicles and partly to make sample packing cases for engines and other units which must be delivered intact to our forces throughout the world. • Special cases for this purpose are designed in a drawing office at this same factor)/ and samples are made for preliminary test before blue prints are sent to contractors who make the cases by the thousand.
A department is concerned with the reclaiming of worn parts by the electro-deposition of nickel. or chrome. All the various cleaning and depositing baths are there, as well as a. waxing bath and hot-oil bath for the removal of occluded hydrogen which embrittles the deposited metal. Deposits up to half alp inch thick are possible, but normal praetice is not to exceed about 1/16 in. for nickel and 1/32 in. for chromium, the deposition of either of .which. would take some 60 hours.
Lying on another side of the main workshops is a tyre
repair factory. Cavers and tubes of all sizes are reconditioned by the most modern methods. Gashes in the tread or wall of a cover, for instance, are cut cleanly out so that all the damaged material is removed. Then the carcase is built up again with the correct number of plies and suitable rubber is vulcanized into place with the same pattern as the rest of the tread in its part-worn condition. Another section of this same establishment applies the wellknown Tyresole process to covers which are sound but worn.
Here, as elsewhere in this organization,' the work consists not merely of producing or repairing; an important side also is the training of craftsmen. Several complete sets of men and machinery already have been shipped to other theatres of war, and a point is made of training each man to do every job in the place. Many of them are recruited from the big civilian tyre factories, but even these need training in the particular military methods.
Within the main workshops there are many departments, of course. First of all there is the inspection hay which is the way in, as well as the way out, for all vehicles requiring workshop attention. When the initial thorough examination is completed, the vehicle becomes represented by a card in the progress dept. Here large wall b'oards show just how long each vehicle has been in the shops, the cause of any delay, the particular vehicles completed each week, and so on. For every one of them, too,,, there is filed a record of work done upon it; should it return at some later date, its repair history is available and is consulted.
Just how much work is done on each vehicle depends naturally upon its particular troubles, but there is no " tinkering " or patching up. Those parts which are affected are stripped completely; their components are chemically cleaned prior to inspection which will reveal whether they can be used again as they are, whether they can be reconditioned in some way, or whether they must be scrapped. This last resort is uncommon in view of the workshop facilities.
In addition to special equipment such as that for the boring of main bearings in position, the machine shop contains a fine array of modern precision tools, including grinders, lathes, drilling machines, cylinder-bore grinders, • boners, planers
and so on. nother department attends to the repair of instruments and electrical gear, including searchlight and depot electrical plant as well as dynamos, starters, ignition equipment, speedometers, clocks, etc., from vehicles. Alongside that is a shop equipped for the overhaul of fuelinjection apparatus. There, nozzles are tested and pumps are calibrated before being returned to service. Other sections include trimming, welding, blacksmiths' and 'tinsmiths' shops.
Besides the work of reconditioning and repairing, the establishment is much concerned with the training of craftsmen for service in other units at *home and abroad. This training is not confined to technical skill and knowledge. The R.E.M.E. craftsman must be able to defend himself and his equipment. Adjacent to the workshops, therefore, there is a complete assault course on which every man receives regular training in addition to a full fourweeks' course. Incidentally, at the end of that course there is a very marked improvement in general health, bearing had alertness which itself is well worth the time spent.
It is a most encouraging sign of the times that the conditions of service in R.E.M.E. are calculated to attract the most suitable men. " Attract " is possibly an unnecessary word in view of the present system' of interviewing each army recruit and allotting him to the work for which he is most suitable; but nevertheless it is not unimportant that a R.E.M.E. craftsman (the rank equivalent to a private) is paid something like 4s. 6d. a day according to his skill. There are three grades and no man can reach . the highest until he has passed his tests as a fighting soldier.
For the commissioned -ranks, too, the pay is good and the requirements are high. A graded officer, for instance, must have served an apprenticeship of at least three years and must either possess a university engineering degree or be a Graduate I.Mech.E. or I.E.E. His pay as a lieutenant is 16s. 4d. a day plus allowances which are tax-free. An ungraded officer is one with the necessary practical experience but without the academic qualifications and hi l pay as a 2nd lieutenant is 12s. 2d. per
day plus allowances which make his total annual emoluments by calculation £368, if single, and £443, if married Already in Egypt the R.E.M.E. has shown the soundness of a policy which demands co-ordination of all th( engineering services of the army. The new organization has gone far to achieve that object, but there is yet more to be done and the second stage in the evolution at " Reemee " is likely to do it. That phase will transfer to the new corps skilled technical men from the Royal Artillery, the Royal Arntoured Corps, and the Royal Signals. Then all the modern forms of military engineering will be co-ordinated under one control.
Lest there be confusion between this new corps and the Royal Engineers, it may be explained that the latter is now concerned only with the earlier branches of, engineering such as mines, fortifications,' bridges—and railways.